Identifying system



Dec; 2, i969 H. A. WANDERMAN ETAL IDENTIFYING SYSTEM Filed July 26, 1967Fla; 6

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INVENTORS HEIZBEQT A. WANDEQMMJ BY STANLEY l2. HAIZIZIS United StatesPatent 3,481,058 IDENTIFYING SYSTEM Herbert A. Wanderman, Pasadena, andStanley R. Harris, South Pasadena, Calif., assignors to EngineeringModel Associates, Los Angeles, Calif., a co-partnership composed ofHerbert A. Wanderman, Walter Wanderman and Irving Wanderman Filed July26, 1967, Ser. No. 656,288 Int. Cl. G09f 3/00, 7/00 US. Cl. 402 3 ClaimsABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates generally to devicesfor visually communicating information and more particularly to anidentifying system and method for making such devices for use inconjunction with engineering models and the like.

In the design and construction of various structures, it has become theaccepted practice in recent years to use engineering models to apredetermined scale. Such models are also used after the constructionphase has been completed for training purposes as well as to facilitatelater additions/and or modifications. Perhaps the most importantadvantage gained by the use of engineering models is that thethree-dimensional display presented clearly and immediately reveals theexistence of errors which may and often do find their way unnoticed ontoconventional two-dimensional drawings. More specifically, the placementof two or more objects at the same physical location is entirelyavoided, and the allowance of ample space and separation between any twoobjects is readily achieved.

In many structures and processing plants, intricate pipingconfigurations are frequently required. In such cases, errors of thetype just mentioned occur at rates which appear to be a function of thecomplexity involved. The use of scaled engineering models, however, hasmaterially reduced these errors; color coding with or without arrowsindicating, for example, direction of flow has further reduced theseerrors.

But, the identifying systems heretofore used, nevertheless, stillpossess undesirable characteristics. Specifically, the prior systemsutilized a flat arrow made of plastic material, one side of which had acircular grove extending longitudinally along the direction of thearrow. With such an arrow, usage is restricted to piping elements havinga diameter substantially the same as that of the circular groove. If acolored plastic is used in addition to form such an arrow, its use isfurther restricted in two ways. One, the manufacturer or supplierimposes the first restriction in the number of different colors used inmaking the colored arrows. The user in turn imposes the secondrestriction in his choice of the number of different colors he procures.And finally, when such a color arrow is ap- "ice plicable, its removalwhere and when required is frequently accompanied by damage to eitherit, or more disastrously, to the piping assembly to which it wasattached, or to both. Such removal is of necessity required in manysituations, as for example, during remodeling or through expansion or asone design or construction phase is completed and its successor isbegun.

Briefly, the invention centers on a novel construction for a tag elementwhich may be readily affixed to and easily removed from a particularpart of an engineering model and the like. A layer of resilient materialis provided and is compressed when the tag element is pressed againstthe part or component it is intended to identify or communicate visuallydata pertaining to it. When compressed under such circumstances, theregion of contact is substantially increased. This permits the use ofweaker and inexpensive adhesives while still achieving substantially thesame holding power. Since the permissible strength per unit area is muchlower, removal of the tag element is also greatly facilitated.

With this arrangement, tag elements of any configuration may be providedin quantity on a moderate size stock having a continuous backing sheetas a carrier. The desired configuration is obtained by scoring the tagelements. The information to be displayed may be encoded or recordedonto each tag element prior to its being transferred from the backingsheet to the object accordingly to be identified or described. Thearrangement leads itself to color coding either of individual tagelements or to entire sheets of them at a time. In addition, the shapeof the tag elements is unrestricted and permitting each shape orconfiguration in turn to convey a secondary meaning.

These disadvantages are alleviated in the identifying system of thepresent invention.

According to the invention, there is provided an identifying sysetm forengineering models and the like, having a tag element for display dataand other symbols comprising in combination display means including aplanar surface for recording thereon the data and other symbols;mounting means including a layer of adhesive material for attaching thetag elements to a preselected component of the models and the like; andresilient means including a layer of resilient material disposed betweenthe planar surface and the layer of adhesive material, the resilientmeans being secured to the planar surface at the other side thereof andforming a base for carrying the layer of adhesive material, theresilient material being compressed in the region the preselectedcomponent makes point or line contact with the layer of adhesivematerial to convert the contact into a surface area contact whereby thetag element is more removably secured thereto.

In another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method formaking a removable tag element for use with engineering models and thelike, comprising the steps of securing a layer of resilient material toone side of paper stock of predetermined size and thickness; coating theexposed side of the resilient material with a layer of adhesivematerial; covering the coating of adhesive material with a removableprotective back-up sheet; and scoring the paper stock and resilientmaterial to form a preselected geometrical configuration with theback-up sheet remaining continuous at all parts thereof.

It is therefore the primary objective and purpose of the invention toprovide an improved identifying system and method for making same.

It is another object of the invention to provide an identifying systemof the type described that utilizes tag elements having predeterminedgeometric configurations onto the surface of which data and othersymbols can be recorded for visual display purposes and wherein said tagelements are readily removable when once attached to the object to beidentified.

It is still another object of the invention to provide an identifyingsystem of the type described for engineering models and the like whereinthe tag elements utilize a novel compressible material whereby regionsof point and line contact are converted to areas of surface contact toobtain greater holding power.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide an identifyingsystem of the type described for engineering models and the likecharacterized in that the tag elements thereof are removably secured inpredetermined groups to a flexible backing sheet and suitable formachine and manual encoding.

Another object of the invention is to provide an identifying system ofthe type described in which the encoded tag elements may be formed in aplurality of geometrical configurations which in turn may communicatesecondary meanings to supplement the information recorded on the tagelements.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an identifyingsystem and method for making same that is inexpensive to manufacture,flexible in its applications, amenable to both manual and machineencoding, and relatively easy to use.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention willbe more fully understood taken in conjunction with the followingspecification, reference being had to the drawing wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a piping diagram usingthe identifying system of the invention and shows tag elements havingcircular and arrow-like configurations;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged front elevation view of one of the arrow-liketag elements of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the tag elements ofFIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is representative of applications wherein the identifyingsystem of the present invention is applied to components substantiallylarger than the tag elements;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged, partial cross-sectional view of the tag elementshown in FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a partial plan view showing the left half of an arrangementby which tag elements in the form of elongated arrows of predeterminedsize are scored from sheet stock and through which arrangement themarking of such tag elements by the user is facilitated;

FIGURE 7 is a partial plan view of the arrangement shown in FIGURE 6with the edge support strip separated from the resulting strip oftranversely disposed tag elements;

FIGURE 8 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along the line 8-8 inFIGURE 6;

FIGURE 9 is an enlarge-d cross-sectional view taken along the line 9-9in FIGURE 6;

FIGURE 10 is another arrangement by which tag elements in circularconfiguration are scored from sheet stock and through which arrangementthe marking thereof is facilitated;

FIGURE 11 is an enlarged cross'sectional view of the arrangement shownin FIGURE 10 taken along lines 11-11 thereof;

FIGURE 12 is a partial plan view showing another atrangement of tagelements according to the invention and serves graphically in thedescription thereof; and

FIGURES 13 and 14 show respectively, a second and a third configurationof the arrow-like tag elements of FIG- URES l, 2, 4 and 6.

Referring to the drawing, shown there in FIGURE 1 is a perspective viewof a portion of an engineering model 4 20 having tag elements 22a, 22b,24 and 26 constructed in accordance with the invention. The engineerigmodel 20, for descriptive purposes, includes a branch line 28 and a mainline 30 to which the branch line 28 is coupled at a junction 32.

The tag elements 22a and 22b are mounted on the branch line 28 in a backto back relationship and serve to display the same or differentinformation in opposite directions. The tag elements 24 and 26 aremounted on the main line 30 to the left and right respectively of thejunction 32 as seen in FIGURE 1.

Each of the tag elements 22a, 22b, 24 and 26 includes a planar surface34 onto which data and other symbols may be recorded or encoded, asdesired. The tag elements 22a, 22b and 24 are formed in arrow-likeconfiguration and are mounted with their pointed ends indicating thedirection of fluid flow through the lines 28 and 30 respectively. Othergeometric configurations may be used such as, for example, the circulartag element 26 of FIGURES 1, 10 and 11. Variations in geometry and colormay also be adopted as required to efiiciently communicate informationand/ or to quickly indentify systems, subsystems and components of themodel 20. The circular shape of the tag element 26 may be used toindicate at a glance the particular system or sub-system of which themain line 30 is a part.

In FIGURE 2, the tag element 24 of FIGURE 1 is shown slightly enlargedand with a right end portion 36 partially removed to reveal the area ofcontact made with the main line 30. A reference numeral 38 points to thearea of contact shown in dotted shading on the main line 30.

The tag element 24, as best seen in FIGURE 3, comprises a displayinglayer 40, a resilient layer 42 and an adhesive layer 44. The displayinglayer 40 may be formed from paper stock and preferably is of a thicknesssufficient to maintain the planar surface 34 substantially fiat. Theresilient layer 42 may be formed from a rubber or plastic foam of any ofthe types commercially available. The thickness of the residient layer42 may be less than, equal to, or greater than the thickness of thelayer 40. The displaying layer 40 and the resilient layer 42 aresuitably bonded together as dicted by a line 46.

It is well known that contact between a plane and a cylinder or sphereis a line or a point respectively. To convert such a line or pointcontact to a more desirable region or area of contact, for reasons to bedescribed, is the function of the resilient layer 42. This function isfulfilled during installation when, for example, the tag element 24- isremovably mounted to the main line 30. After the tag element 24 has beenaligned as desired, relative to the main line 30, pressure is firmlyapplied and causes the resilient layer 42 to be compressed and toconform to the shape of the object, here the main line 30, to Which thetag element 24 is being mounted.

T his is clearly shown in FIGURE 3 where the curved line having pointscommon to both the main line 30 and the tag element 24 represents theactual width of the surface contact area 38. The width of the contactarea 38 can be increased up to a point and at a decreasing rate bymerely increasing the thickness of the resilient layer 42. Therelationship applies only in cases where the actual size of thecomponent part of the model 20 is substantially smaller than the tagelement used.

It is informative to note that the resilient layer 42 is compressed to amaximum at the point of initial contact, namely at the point of tangencywith the main line 30.

Since, in FIGURE 3, what otherwise would have been a line contact hasnow been converted to a band or strip of surface area contact 38, thispermits the use of a hesive materials having a smaller holding power perunit area than otherwise would be required. With the use of adhesivematerials of reduced strength, it was found that tag elements, such asthe tag element 24, can easily be removed if and when necessary Withoutdestroying or damaging the tag element itself or the system to which thetag element is associated.

In FIGURE 4, a tag element 48 is shown mounted to a vessel 50 which maycomprise a component of the model 20 and one which in actual size issubstantially larger than the tag element 48. As best seen in FIGURE 5,the tag element 48 includes the display layer 40, the resilient layer 42suitably bonded to the layer 40 at the line 46, and the coating or layerof adhesive material 44 disposed over the resilient layer 42 which, inthis example, is in contact at all points with the vessel 50'. Theresilient layer 42, in this event, serves to make allowances for anysurface irregularities of the vessel 50 an at the same time to retainthe substantial flatness of the planar surface 34. In addition, the useof adhesive materials of relatively low strength per unit area stillpermits easy removal of the tag element 48 at any time.

A method for making and using the tag elements of the instantidentifying system is hereinafter described in conjunction with FIGURES6, 7, 8 and 9. With reference first to FIGURE 6, shown there is a planview Of a plurality of arrow-like tag elements 52 arranged side by sideand forming the left half of a sheet 54. Each of the tag elements 52includes a pointed end 56 and a squaredoff tail end 58. The right halfof the sheet 54 comprises a mirror image of the left half with thereference numeral 58 being representative of the centerline of the sheet54.

At the top of the sheet 54 there is provided a top margin strip 60; thebottom of the sheet 54 is also provided with a bottom margin strip 62.Adjacent to the pointed ends 56 and integrally connected to the marginstrips 60 and 62 there is provided a left side margin strip 64. A rightside margin strip, not shown, may also be provided and serves along withthe strips 60, 62 and 64 to impart stiffness to the sheet 54.

Referring to FIGURE 8, the sheet 54 comprises an upper layer 66 ofpredetermined thickness, a backing sheet 68, and a layer of resilientmaterial 70 permanently bonded to the upper layer 66 at their surfacejunction depicted by a line 72. The backing sheet 68 is removablysecured to the resilient layer 70 by a layer of adhesive material 74. Onremoval of the backing sheet 68 prior to installation, it should beclear that the then exposed resilient layer 70 remains coated with theadhesive layer 74. It is this adhesive layer 74 that engages and adheresto the surface of the object to be identified or described. In FIGURE 8,the lines 76 represent the soring along the pointed ends 56 adjoiningthe left side margin strip 64, which scoring may intermittently extendthrough the backing sheet 68.

In FIGURE 7, the left side margin strip 64 is shown removed from thesheet 54 in preparation for inserting it into a typewriter for recordinginformation on the individual tag elements 52. The right side marginstrip, not shown, may be similarly removed, or if desired, the sheet 54may be divided in half along the centerline 58. When removing the leftmarginstrip 64, the sheet 54 is out along lines 78 and 80 to separatethe top and bottom margin strips 60 and 62 respectively from the sidemargin strip 64. With the side margin strips 64 removed, the scoredcenter portion of the sheet 54, as a result of the horizontally scoredlines 82, becomes pliable and insertable into a typewriter. For manualmarking purposes, the margin strip 64 is retained to provide sufficientstiffness for ease of recording.

The horizontally scored lines 82 of FIGURES 6 and 7 can be seen in theenlarged cross-sectional view of FIG- URE 9 as spaced apart openings 84between adjacent tag elements 52. It should be noted that the scoredlines 82 extend only to the backing sheet 68 in the preferredembodiment. In some cases, which may depend upon the geometricalconfiguration used for the tag element, scoring intermittently throughthe backing sheet 68 may be desired. One such application may be thearrangement shown in FIGURE in which the circular tag elements 6 26 ofFIGURE 1 are shown in a single column or strip arrangement 86.

The arrangement 86 may include a plurality of such columns, if desired,with each tag element 26 being formed by scoring as shown in theenlarged cross-sectional view of FIGURE 11 by the spaced apart openings88 between adjacent tag elements 26.

Shown in FIGURE 12 is an alternative arrangement 90 for providing tagelements 92 and 94 of the type illustrated in FIGURES 13 and 14respectively. A portion 54a of the sheet 54, reference FIGURE 6, isshown in FIGURE 12 and includes the left side margin strip 64 and tagelements 92a and 94a similar to the tag elements 92 and 94 respectivelyof the corresponding FIGURES 13 and 14. By scoring the portion 54a inthe manner shown by a solid sawtooth line 96, tag elements 92a may beobtained. By displacing the solid sawtooth line 96 upwardly ordownwardly as seen in FIGURE 12 a distance equal to one half thatbetween adjacent horizontal scored lines 82, as shown by a dashedsawtooth line 98, tag elements 94a may be obtained. It should be notedhowever, that scoring along the solid sawtooth line 96 provides, incases where the sheet 54a comprises two columns of tag elements asdiscussed in conjunction with FIGURE 6, both the tag elements 92a on theleft half of the sheet 54a and the tag elements 94a on the right half ofthe sheet 54a but in a position inverted left to right as shown inFIGURE 14.

It should be clear that other configurations for tag elements can beprovided as desired by, for example, scoring the sheet 54, reference'FIGURE 6, accordingly. The supporting side margin strips 64 may be usedfor the larger sheets and especially where machine recording iscontemplated.

We have therefore shown and described an identifying system using tagelements of various configurations and adapted for displaying data andother symbols and colors to an observer and wherein each tag element isprovided with a resilient layer' having a coating of adhesive wherebythe tag elements can be removably attached to an engineering model orthe like. Such a system is inexpensive to manufacture, easy to use andcan be removed at any later time without damaging the tag element or themodel supporting it.

While we have herein shown and described our invention in what we haveconceived to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it isrecognized that departures may be made therefrom within the scope of ourinvention, which is not to be limited to the details disclosed hereinbut is to be accorded the full scope of the claims so as to embrace anyand all equivalent devices and methods.

We claim: 1. In an identifying system for engineering models and thelike, a tag element for display data and other symbols comprising incombination display means including a planar surface for recordingthereon said data and other symbols; mounting means including a layer ofadhesive material for attaching said tag element to a preselectedcomponent of said models and the like; and resilient means including alayer of resilient material disposed between said planar surface andsaid layer of adhesive material, said resilient means being secured tosaid planar surface at the other side thereof and forming a base forcarrying said layer of adhesive material, said resilient material beingcompressed in the region said preselected component makes point or linecontact with said layer of adhesive material to convert said contactinto a surface area contact whereby said tag element is more removablysecured thereto. 2. The identifying system according to claim 1 furthercharacterized in that said resilient means comprises a 7 8 compressibleplastic foam having a substantially uniform FOREIGN PATENTS thickness.

3. The identifying system according to claim 2 further 576,839 5/1958Italycharacterized in that said display means is formed from paper stockof predetermined thickness and color. 5 EUGENE CAPOZIO, Primary Exammel'References Cited W. J. CONTRERAS, Assistant Examlner UNITED STATESPATENTS U,S CL X R 2,591,779 4/1952 Buck. 40135 2,622,356 12/1952Valente. 10

